JP2013140609A - Input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an input device which allows a user to make full use of functions of an input and display part including a touch panel without forcing complicated operations on the user, the functions including a display part function and an input part function.SOLUTION: An input device comprises: a display part which displays a screen comprised of a plurality of layers including a first layer for displaying an input area, and a second layer for displaying an input area different than that of the first layer; a touch panel which is arranged in association with the display part, and which detects an input to the input areas; a determination part which determines an input state with respect to the touch panel; a detection part which detects an input to an overlapping area of the input areas displayed by the first and the second layers; and a processing part which processes, when an input is determined as an input in a first input state, the input as an input to the input area displayed by the first layer, and which processes, when an input is determined as an input in a second input state, the input as an input to the input area displayed by the second layer.

Description

[Cross-reference of related applications]
This application claims the priority of the Japan patent application 2007-197732 for which it applied on July 30, 2007, The whole indication of this previous application is taken in here for reference.

  The present invention relates to an input device, and more particularly to an input device having a touch panel.

  For example, in a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, various input devices have been developed depending on the function and / or application of each terminal when a user operates the terminal. Many portable terminals are configured to accept an input by an operation in which a user directly presses a mechanical key or button or the like provided in advance on the surface of the terminal body with a finger or the like.

  The mechanical key of the input device in such a terminal is usually pre-arranged according to the main use of the terminal, and in general, the physical arrangement of the key defined first is It cannot be changed later.

  By the way, recently, a variety of functions have been incorporated into small mobile terminals, as some mobile phones have functions such as a digital camera and music playback. In addition to the main applications of each terminal, there are many auxiliary functions, PDA (Personal Digital Assistants: personal digital assistants), etc. Some have multiple uses. In such a multi-function terminal, if the key arrangement is fixed, it may be inconvenient during an input operation depending on the function used.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a mobile phone having an input device in which a touch panel is placed on the front surface of a liquid crystal display screen as a solution to such inconvenience of operation. The input device of the cellular phone is configured such that when an operation key or button displayed as an image on the display screen is pressed, a touch panel corresponding to the position receives the input.

  Since this mobile phone can arbitrarily display the key layout on the display screen and input it, a free key layout can be configured. Therefore, each time the function of the terminal is switched, the key arrangement can be freely changed according to the function, and extremely good operability can be obtained. For example, when using the functions of a digital camera mounted on this mobile phone, keys such as the shutter and zoom are arranged on the display unit at an easy-to-use position, and when inputting characters, the display unit By changing the above key arrangement, it is possible to arrange keys arranged like a keyboard of a personal computer. If such a terminal is used, the user can perform an input operation by optimizing the input device of one terminal for each of a plurality of functions.

  However, a terminal that uses a touch panel as an input device has an entire surface of the touch panel that is flat so that each key can be freely arranged. Like a device, it is impossible to determine the shape of a key or the boundary between keys by sensing the physical unevenness on the surface of each key with the touch of a fingertip. Therefore, it is generally difficult to perform touch typing (blind touch) with such an input device.

  In particular, as shown in FIG. 9, for example, when a character is input to create a text of an e-mail using a two-screen mobile phone 100 having a touch panel, the input operation is performed by pressing the touch panel. In many cases, the position of the key display unit 120 is different from that of the information display unit 110 that displays the progress and result of the input. Therefore, in order to perform an accurate input, the user must perform a certain pressing operation by gazing at the key pressed by the key display unit 120 every time the key displayed on the touch panel is pressed. Furthermore, it is necessary for the user to constantly move his / her line of sight, such as checking whether the input result is reflected as desired by moving the line of sight to the information display unit 110 on which the input result is displayed.

  On the other hand, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, a terminal 200 such as a PDA having only one input unit / display unit 210 having a touch panel disposed on the front surface of one display unit has a separate input unit and display unit. Compared to the configured terminal, it is possible to reduce the burden of constantly moving the line of sight when the user performs input. However, when the terminal 200 displays both the input unit used in the TV phone function and the address book information, for example, or displays a key for creating an e-mail text, and the input result by the key In general, the display of the display unit 210 (provided with a touch panel) is divided into upper and lower parts as shown in FIG. In the case of split display as described above, each display on the display unit 210 must be displayed in a small size or a part thereof may be omitted. However, when it is necessary to reduce the size of the terminal body, such as a portable terminal, the size of the display unit is also limited. For example, each key is displayed in a small size and displayed on the key display unit. If a large number is used, the operability may be deteriorated.

  For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a display device that superimposes and displays the input unit and the display unit at the same location on the screen as one input unit and display unit. ing. According to this display device, it is possible to effectively utilize a limited screen display space without reducing the display of the input unit and the display unit.

  In this display device, a predetermined image is displayed on a display unit having a touch panel, and a keyboard image is transparently displayed on the image, and both images are displayed so as to be visible. The input operation can be performed with the transparently displayed keyboard. Therefore, when this display device is used, the user can display a plurality of layers (superimposed display layers) on the same screen without reducing the display on either of the two screens or switching the display. Input operations can be performed while watching.

  However, this display device controls the two display screens by distinguishing them between the “setting display window” and the “keypad” keyboard window. Therefore, the display device displays the numeric keypad in a superimposed manner, and does not accept an input operation to the setting display window while accepting an input using the numeric keypad. That is, this display device displays two layers in a superimposed manner, and controls the display so that only the input to one of the layers is accepted, although the display of either layer is visible. Therefore, it is not possible to cope with a configuration that accepts input to both layers.

  In general, as a method of dealing with input to a plurality of layers, when a plurality of layers are displayed on the display screen and an operation input for one of the layers is received, before the operation input is received In addition, there is a known method of accepting an operation input to a layer after accepting a user's selection operation with the layer that accepts the input as an active layer. However, in this method, since the user must perform the selection operation of the layer to be activated each time the input layer is changed, the user is forced to perform a complicated change operation.

  For example, as disclosed in Patent Document 3, as shown in FIG. 11, two screens (display layers) are superimposed and displayed on one display device 300 as shown in FIG. A technique is disclosed that enables input to any layer without performing it.

  The display device 300 described in Patent Literature 3 can perform dual view display in which a plurality of different images are simultaneously displayed in a plurality of display directions respectively corresponding to a plurality of viewpoints with respect to the same display unit. Thus, for example, the viewer (A) can see the image (b) and the viewer (B) can see the image (c), so that the viewers can observe different images from different viewpoints. Furthermore, the display device 300 is provided separately for each display layer that each viewer is viewing, for example, from the viewer A to the icon A and from the viewer B to the icon B. Can accept input operations.

JP 2006-31224 A JP 2003-295996 A JP-A-2005-284592

  However, in the technique described in Patent Document 3, when displaying individual input screens in each display layer (images (b) and (c)), the display position is set so that icons of different layers are not superimposed on the same place at the same time. Non-superimposing control to be changed is performed. Further, when icons are displayed at the same position, control is performed so that a plurality of icons do not accept different inputs at the same position at the same time by shifting the display timing of each icon. For this reason, regarding the display of each layer, it is expected that the display position and display timing may be subject to considerable restrictions when various icons and keys are arranged and displayed. Although the display of each layer is superimposed to effectively use the display space of the display unit, the display position and display timing of operation keys and icons displayed in the display space are as follows. The display space may not be used effectively.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention made in view of such points is to make the most of both the functions of the display unit and the display unit of the input unit and display unit including a touch panel without forcing the user to perform complicated operations. An object of the present invention is to provide an input device that can be used.

The invention of the input device according to the first aspect to achieve the above object is as follows:
A display unit that displays a screen composed of a plurality of layers, including a first layer that displays at least one input area, and a second layer that displays at least one input area different from the first layer. When,
A touch panel that is arranged in association with the display unit and detects an input to an input area displayed on the display unit;
An input mode determination unit for determining an input mode for the touch panel;
An overlapping area input detection unit for detecting an input to an overlapping area where the input area displayed by the first layer and the input area displayed by the second layer overlap;
When the input to the overlapping area where the input area displayed by the first layer and the input area displayed by the second layer overlap is detected by the overlapping area input detection unit, the input mode determination unit When the input is determined to be an input according to the first input mode, the input is processed as an input to the input area displayed on the first layer, and the input mode is determined by the input mode determination unit. An input control unit that processes the input as an input to an input area displayed on the second layer when it is determined as an input according to an aspect;
It is characterized by providing.

Furthermore, the invention of the input device according to the second aspect of achieving the above object is as follows:
A display unit that displays a screen composed of a plurality of layers, including a first layer that displays at least one input area, and a second layer that displays at least one input area different from the first layer. When,
A touch panel that is arranged in association with the display unit and detects an input to an input area displayed on the display unit;
An input mode determination unit for determining a first input mode for the first layer and a second input mode for the second layer to the touch panel;
When the input mode determining unit determines that the input is an input according to the first input mode, the input mode is processed as an input to the input area displayed on the first layer, and the input mode determining unit When the input is determined to be an input according to the second input mode, an input control unit that processes the input as an input to an input area displayed on the second layer;
It is characterized by providing.

The invention according to a third aspect is the input device according to the first or second aspect,
The display control unit further includes a display control unit that performs display on the other predetermined display area of the first or second layer in response to an input to the input area displayed on one of the first or second layers. It is what.

It is a schematic perspective view which shows the structure of the portable terminal which has the input device which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the portable terminal shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen displayed on the display part of the portable terminal shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example in which each layer of FIG. 3 is superimposed and displayed. It is a flowchart explaining the multi-layer operation process by the input device of the portable terminal shown in FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the input method with respect to each layer of the input device of the portable terminal shown in FIG. It is a flowchart explaining the operation | movement of the input device of the portable terminal shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the menu key of the input device of the mobile telephone shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the conventional 2 screen type portable terminal. It is a figure which shows the example of the conventional 1 screen type portable terminal. It is a figure explaining the method to receive the input according to each viewer in the conventional dual view display. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen of English displayed on the display part of the portable terminal shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example in English on which each layer of FIG. 12 was superimposed and displayed. It is a figure explaining the English example of the input method with respect to each layer of the input device of the portable terminal shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of an English display of the menu key of the input device of the mobile telephone shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of English of the conventional 2 screen-type portable terminal. It is a figure which shows the example of English of the conventional 1 screen type | mold mobile terminal.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, a portable terminal such as a PDA will be described as an example of a terminal equipped with an input device. However, the application of the input device of the present invention is not limited to a portable terminal, and a touch panel. If it is a terminal which has an input part provided with, for example, it is possible to apply to arbitrary terminals, such as a stationary input device.

  FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a mobile terminal 10 having an input device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The mobile terminal 10 includes a display unit 11 that draws various information and shapes such as keys and buttons on a liquid crystal screen and the like to display these arrangements, as shown in a partially cutaway manner on the front surface of the terminal body. A touch panel 12 is disposed on the front surface of the display unit 11 and is configured by a matrix switch or the like that directly accepts an input by a user's finger or the like. The mobile terminal 10 further includes a key input unit 13 constituted by at least one mechanical key, a speaker 14 that outputs voice, and a microphone 15 that receives voice input. In addition, the mobile terminal 10 may include a short-distance wireless communication unit such as a digital camera function unit, a one-segment broadcasting tuner, an infrared communication function unit, and various interfaces, depending on the required functions. The details and description are omitted.

  The mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment displays various key shapes and arrangements on the display unit 11 as images. When the user presses the image portion on which the key is displayed, the touch panel 12 corresponding to the position is pressed, and the transparent switch at the pressed position of the touch panel 12 outputs a signal corresponding to the input.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing an internal configuration of mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment. As described above, the mobile terminal 10 includes the display unit 11, the touch panel 12, the key input unit 13, the speaker 14, and the microphone 15. The mobile terminal 10 further determines the input mode based on the input to the display mode control unit 16 that controls the display mode, such as transmitting and superimposing an image to be displayed on the display unit 11 as a layer described later. An input mode determination unit 17, a storage unit 18 for storing various information such as a plurality of templates for displaying the shape and arrangement of input keys and buttons on the display unit 11 according to each application, and each of these blocks And a control unit 19 for controlling and managing.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the display unit 11 of the mobile terminal 10. Here, as an example, a display mode of the display unit 11 at the time of creating a widely used electronic mail is illustrated. FIG. 3A is a diagram in which the control unit 19 reads out an arrangement of operation key groups necessary for e-mail text creation / editing from the storage unit 18 and displays it on the display unit 11, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an e-mail text creation / editing screen. Although the e-mail creation function has been described here as an example, the display unit 11 displays a display screen and a screen suitable for using each function according to various templates according to each function of the mobile terminal 10. An easy key arrangement is read from the storage unit 18 and displayed.

  The user presses the keys of the operation key group displayed on the display unit 11 as shown in FIG. 3A (actually presses the touch panel 12), and inputs characters constituting the email. . Hereinafter, an input operation of the portable terminal 10 will be described by adopting an e-mail kana character input method that is generally used at present. That is, “A” is assigned to each numeric key, such as “A” for the “1” key, “K” for the “2” key, “Sa” for the “3” key. `` Wa line '' is made to correspond to each line, and by pressing each numeric key continuously, according to the number of times of pressing, the corresponding kana of the corresponding line is changed to forward feed and input one character at a time. I will explain.

  In the display screen shown in FIG. 3B, an area indicating the conversion progress of the character of the e-mail input by the user is displayed in the upper part of the screen, and a fixed part of the input character is displayed in the middle part. At the time shown in the drawing, the user presses the “3 (row)” key once from the keys on the display section shown in FIG. Next, press the “2 (ka line)” key three times in succession to change the kana of the kana in order, and the third letter “ku” is entered. ing. In response to the input of “saku” kana characters, various word selection candidates starting with “saku” are displayed in the lower part of FIG. The user can select and confirm candidates from these displayed words.

  When the display screens as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B are displayed on the display unit 11 of the mobile terminal 10, for example, the display units 110 and 120 as illustrated in FIG. 9 are included. If it is a portable terminal, the operation key screen of FIG. 3A can be displayed on the key display unit 120 having a touch panel, and the e-mail creation / editing screen of FIG. 3B can be displayed on the information display unit 110. However, when there is only one display unit 11 as in the portable terminal 10 of the present embodiment, two screens must be displayed on one display unit. In that case, each screen can also be displayed by dividing the display screen of one display unit 210, for example, as in the portable terminal 200 of FIG. However, when displayed in this way, each screen must be reduced and displayed, so it cannot be said that the display space of the limited display unit is effectively utilized, and depending on the function used by the mobile terminal, There may be a case where the usability as the display unit or the input unit is significantly deteriorated.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the display mode control unit 16 allows each display screen to be visually recognized even when the plurality of display screens are superimposed by transmitting the plurality of display screens without reducing each display screen. Control so that you can. Hereinafter, as in the case of superimposing a plurality of display screens, each display screen constituting the plurality of displays is conceptually described as a “layer”. For convenience of explanation, a display screen on which operation keys as shown in FIG. 3A are displayed is “operation layer”, and a display screen on which operation results are displayed as shown in FIG. This is referred to as “display layer”.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which the layers shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B are superimposed and displayed. If the other layer is superimposed on one layer as it is, the display screen of the lower layer overlapped will not be visible, so the display mode control unit 16 changes the transmittance of the display screen of the upper layer, The upper image is superimposed in a transparent state. 4A is a diagram in which the display layer is transparently displayed on the operation layer, and is superimposed and displayed. FIG. 4B is a diagram in which the operation layer is transparently displayed on the display layer. By superimposing and displaying the upper layer in this way, both of the two layers can be visually recognized, so there is no need to reduce the display of each layer, and the display unit does not impair the layout of each layer. Eleven display spaces can be used effectively.

  Note that the display mode control unit 16 performs control so that display in various modes can be performed according to the settings stored in the storage unit 18 in the superimposed display by transmission. For example, “image transmission on / off” in which whether or not to use the transparent and superimposed display function as described above is set in advance, or how much an arbitrary layer is displayed and “layer transmission” is set. Control is performed so that various settings such as “rate”, “layer order” for setting the order of superimposing a plurality of layers, and “maximum number of superimposed layers” for setting the maximum number of layers to be superimposed are performed. When a layer exceeding the “maximum number of superimposed layers” is activated, the first activated layer is hidden in the sleep state, and when the display of other layers is completed, the sleep state of the layer in the sleep state is terminated. You may comprise so that it may cancel | release and display again. In the case of this example, it is sufficient that the operation key can be visually recognized as an arrangement. Therefore, it is preferable to set the layer transmittance and the layer order as shown in FIG. According to each function, it is possible to set the mode that is most easily used by each user.

  When overlaying layers with transparency as described above, it is especially problematic if the positions of icons, buttons, keys, etc., which are input areas displayed on each layer, do not overlap the same position on multiple layers. It is possible to accept input operations for each layer. However, when the position of the input area is displayed so as to overlap the same position of a plurality of layers, even if the user presses the position of the input area, it is input to which input area of the superimposed display, The touch panel 12 cannot judge.

  That is, for example, in FIG. 4, the “3” key or the “deleted” character in the selection candidate is displayed in the input area regardless of whether the pressing operation is performed in any of the layers shown in FIGS. Since the positions do not overlap in each layer, it is possible to correctly determine from which position the input is made on the touch panel 12 to which layer the input area is input. However, for example, the “#” key or the “exploded” character in the selection candidate has a position on the touch panel 12 regardless of which of the layers shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B is pressed. Since they are almost the same, it may be assumed that the input position cannot be determined from the pressed position.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the mobile terminal 10 performs “multi-layer operation processing” for determining as an input to a predetermined input area even if the positions of the input areas overlap when a plurality of layers are superimposed and displayed.

  Hereinafter, the multi-layer operation process by the input device of the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In this multi-layer operation process, it is assumed that a plurality of layers are superimposed on the display unit 11 as a premise. In addition, when the user performs an input on a predetermined input area on the touch panel 12, the input mode is stored in the storage unit 18 in advance so that the input mode determination unit 17 can determine which layer is the input.

  The input mode referred to here is, for example, a normal input that is pressed once, a long press input, an input that is quickly pressed twice, an input that slides a finger while pressing, an input that repels the pressed finger, Various modes are conceivable, such as an input of tracing around the icon to be selected with a circle. In particular, an input that slides a finger may be handled as an input mode that changes depending on the sliding direction (for example, sliding from top to bottom is the first input mode, from bottom to top). Slide into the second input mode, etc.). The storage unit 18 stores in advance which layer corresponds to each input mode.

  First, in step S11, when an input is detected on the touch panel 12 corresponding to the input area displayed on the display unit 11, the control unit 19 refers to the key arrangement of each layer stored in the storage unit 18. Thus, it is determined whether or not the position of the input area where the input is detected does not overlap with the plurality of input areas of the displayed plurality of layers (step S12). Even if there are a plurality of layers, if the position of the input area does not overlap, it is considered that the user intended to input to the input area. Therefore, the control unit 19 performed the input to the input area. As a result, a corresponding process is performed (step S13).

  In step S12, when the position of the input area where the input is detected overlaps with the input area of another layer, the control unit 19 uses the information on the input mode determined by the input mode determination unit 17. Then, it is determined to which layer this input has been performed, and processing is performed assuming that an input operation has been performed on the input area of the layer indicated by the determination result (step S14).

  Therefore, when the input area overlaps, for example, when “normal single press is input to the operation layer” is set, as shown in FIG. 6A, the user wants to input to the “7” key. Sometimes, if an input is made by pressing the “7” key once, based on the determination by the input mode determination unit 17, the control unit 19 processes the input as an “7” input to the operation layer. In addition, when the input area overlaps, and “the input to be slid while pressing is set as an input to the display layer”, when the user wants to select the character “author”, as shown in FIG. ”Is input, the control unit 19 processes the input as selecting“ author ”of the display layer based on the determination by the input mode determination unit 17. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the input mode determination unit includes the input mode determination unit 17 and the storage unit 18. In addition, the overlapping area input detection unit is configured by including the touch panel 12, the display mode control unit 16, and the control unit 19. The control unit 19 includes an input control unit.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the input areas of a plurality of layers at the same position on the touch panel 12 are not related to the state of the superimposed display transmitted on the display unit 11 (which layer is the topmost). Regardless of whether or not it is displayed on the screen, it is possible to directly input an arbitrary layer separately for each layer. Therefore, there is no need to select a layer to be activated or switch layers for each input.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the result based on the input to a certain layer is reflected in another layer, such as the result of the input to the “operation layer” is reflected in the “display layer”. Display can be performed. For example, when the “1 (A row)” key is pressed on the operation layer, the control unit 19 first displays a confirmation display (“1” (A row)) on the operation layer. For example, after a momentary reverse display is performed, based on this input, it is possible to perform processing such that the character “A” is output to the display layer. Therefore, in this embodiment, the display control unit is configured including the display mode control unit 16 and the control unit 19.

  In addition, when an e-mail is created as shown in FIG. 6, various word selection candidates are displayed in the lower part of the display layer in accordance with the input of kana characters, and the user selects a candidate from among them. In this method, the user normally selects a kana character conversion candidate using, for example, a cross-shaped key displayed at the top of the operation layer. In the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment, a plurality of layers can be displayed in a superimposed manner by being transparent, and direct input can be performed on an arbitrary layer. For this reason, when selecting a candidate as described above, the user can directly select a selection candidate from the display layer by performing input in a manner of input to the display layer. Therefore, the user can make full use of the merit of using the input unit having the touch panel.

  Furthermore, in preparation for the case where the input mode determination unit 17 cannot determine which layer corresponds to the input by the user, the priority of input can be set in advance for each layer. That is, for example, when it is determined that a normal single pressing operation is an input to the operation layer and a slide input is determined to be an input to the display layer, whether the user input is a single press or a slide input If the input mode discrimination unit 17 cannot discriminate, for example, a setting for preferentially inputting to the display layer can be performed in advance. In addition, when the mode of the input operation for the first appearing layer is set, for example, as a normal single press, the mode of the input operation for the next appearing layer is set to a mode different from the normal single press. Become. For this reason, when a certain input cannot be recognized as a normal one-time press that is assumed to be easy to distinguish, a setting is made to preferentially determine that the input is for a layer that appears later. You can also.

  Next, the operation of the input device of the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. This further explains an example of the operation of the mobile terminal 10 when a plurality of layers are activated, including the above-described “multi-layer operation processing”.

  After the start, in step S21, when a plurality of layers are started by superimposing a new display screen on the display screen that was originally started, the control unit 19 sets the image transmission function setting from the storage unit 18. Read (step S22). When reading the settings of the image transparency function, in addition to the above-mentioned “image transparency on / off”, “layer transparency”, “layer order”, “maximum number of superimposed layers”, the above-mentioned “multi-layer operation processing” is necessary. In other words, various settings made in advance, such as associating each input mode with a layer and displaying / hiding a “menu key” to be described later, are read.

  Next, it is determined whether or not “transmission on / off” in the information read in step S22 is set to use or not to use the function of transparent and superimposed display (step S23). ). In step S23, when the image transmission is turned off, that is, when it is set not to superimpose, the control unit 19 displays the screen by dividing the screen according to the setting in order to display a plurality of screens without using a plurality of layers. Thus, the display mode control unit 16 is controlled (step S24).

  If it is determined in step S23 that image transmission is set to ON, the control unit 19 controls the display mode control unit 16 so that a plurality of layers are appropriately transmitted according to the setting and displayed in a superimposed manner. 11 is set to display a menu key, it is determined whether or not the menu key is pressed (step S25). This menu key is displayed as an input area, for example, in the upper right part of the operation layer as shown in FIG. When this menu key is pressed in step S25, the control unit 19 controls the display mode control unit 16 to display a setting screen on which various settings of the “image transmission function” described above can be performed (step S25). S26). Further, if this menu key is shifted to non-display after a certain time has elapsed and redisplayed in response to a special input such as tracing the edge of the touch panel 12, it does not interfere with other displays. Is preferred. After the setting is performed on the setting screen in step S26, the control unit 19 returns to step S22 and reads the setting from the storage unit 18.

  When the menu key is not pressed in step S25, the process proceeds to step S27 to perform the “multi-layer operation process” described in the flowchart of FIG. During a series of input operations, a user may start an application to start a further layer. However, an unnecessary layer may be deleted due to an application termination process or the like. In step S28, the control unit 19 checks the number of layers that are currently activated, and repeats the multi-layer operation process of step S27 as long as multiple layers are activated. On the other hand, when it is determined that the plurality of layers are no longer activated, the control unit 19 ends the process of controlling the input of the plurality of layers accompanying the superimposed display.

  In this way, it is possible to change the settings of the image transparency function as appropriate in a series of input processing when multiple layers are activated, including “multi-layer operation processing”. Alternatively, the screen split display can be selected, so that the user can obtain an extremely convenient operating environment.

  In addition, this invention is not limited only to the said embodiment, Many deformation | transformation or a change is possible. For example, in the above embodiment, in the “multi-layer operation process”, it is determined whether or not the position of the input area where the input is detected overlaps the plurality of input areas displayed on the plurality of layers. If so, it was determined to which layer this input was made. However, as another example, regardless of whether or not the position of the input area where the input is detected overlaps in the input areas displayed on the plurality of layers, the input mode and the layer are always set in advance. It is also possible to perform processing based on the correspondence relationship between

  That is, when an input of the first mode (for example, simple one press) is performed on the touch panel 12, it is always determined and processed as an input to the first layer, and an input of the second mode (for example, slide input) ) Is always determined and processed as an input to the second layer. Depending on the function used in the mobile terminal 10, an operation method fixed for each layer as described above may be preferable.

  Further, in the above embodiment, for convenience of explanation, the number of layers to be superimposed is two. However, naturally, three or more layers may be superimposed and displayed. In this case, the transmittance of each of the three or more layers is changed so as to be stepwise different as a whole, and each layer is displayed so that it can be visually recognized even if a plurality of layers are superimposed, It is preferable to associate different input modes with each layer.

(Embodiment in case of English)
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in English with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, a portable terminal such as a PDA will be described as an example of a terminal equipped with an input device. However, the application of the input device of the present invention is not limited to a portable terminal, and a touch panel. If it is a terminal which has an input part provided with, for example, it is possible to apply to arbitrary terminals, such as a stationary input device.

  FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a mobile terminal 10 having an input device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The mobile terminal 10 includes a display unit 11 that draws various information and shapes such as keys and buttons on a liquid crystal screen and the like to display these arrangements, as shown in a partially cutaway manner on the front surface of the terminal body. A touch panel 12 is disposed on the front surface of the display unit 11 and is configured by a matrix switch or the like that directly accepts an input by a user's finger or the like. The mobile terminal 10 further includes a key input unit 13 constituted by at least one mechanical key, a speaker 14 that outputs voice, and a microphone 15 that receives voice input. In addition, the mobile terminal 10 may include a short-distance wireless communication unit such as a digital camera function unit, a one-segment broadcasting tuner, an infrared communication function unit, and various interfaces, depending on the required functions. The details and description are omitted.

  The mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment displays various key shapes and arrangements on the display unit 11 as images. When the user presses the image portion on which the key is displayed, the touch panel 12 corresponding to the position is pressed, and the transparent switch at the pressed position of the touch panel 12 outputs a signal corresponding to the input.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing an internal configuration of mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment. As described above, the mobile terminal 10 includes the display unit 11, the touch panel 12, the key input unit 13, the speaker 14, and the microphone 15. The mobile terminal 10 further determines the input mode based on the input to the display mode control unit 16 that controls the display mode, such as transmitting and superimposing an image to be displayed on the display unit 11 as a layer described later. An input mode determination unit 17, a storage unit 18 for storing various information such as a plurality of templates for displaying the shape and arrangement of input keys and buttons on the display unit 11 according to each application, and each of these blocks And a control unit 19 for controlling and managing.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the display unit 11 of the mobile terminal 10. Here, as an example, a display mode of the display unit 11 at the time of creating a widely used electronic mail is illustrated. FIG. 12A is a diagram in which the control unit 19 reads out an array of operation keys necessary for creating / editing an e-mail sentence from the storage unit 18 and displays it on the display unit 11, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an e-mail text creation / editing screen. Although the e-mail creation function has been described here as an example, the display unit 11 displays a display screen and a screen suitable for using each function according to various templates according to each function of the mobile terminal 10. An easy key arrangement is read from the storage unit 18 and displayed.

  The user presses the keys of the operation key group displayed on the display unit 11 as shown in FIG. 12A (actually presses the touch panel 12), and inputs the characters constituting the e-mail. . Hereinafter, an input operation of the portable terminal 10 will be described by adopting an electronic mail character input method that is currently generally used. That is, “A”, “B”, “C” for the “2” key, “D, E, F” for the “3” key, “G, H, I” for the “4” key, etc. By associating each character of “A” to “Z” with a numeric key and pressing each numeric key continuously, the corresponding character is shifted to the forward one by one according to the number of times of pressing. The method of inputting will be described. (For example, to input “H”, press the “4” key twice.)

  In the display screen shown in FIG. 12B, an area indicating the conversion progress of the character of the e-mail input by the user is displayed in the upper part of the screen, and a fixed part of the input character is displayed in the middle part. At the time of illustration, the user presses the key “9 (W, X, Y, Z)” three times among the keys of the display unit 11 shown in FIG. The place where “Y” is input is shown. In response to the input of the letter “Y”, various word selection candidates starting with “Y” are displayed in the lower part of FIG. The user can select and confirm candidates from these displayed words.

  When the display screens as shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B are displayed on the display unit 11 of the mobile terminal 10, for example, the display units 110 and 120 as illustrated in FIG. 16 are included. If it is a portable terminal, the operation key screen of FIG. 12A can be displayed on the key display unit 120 having a touch panel, and the e-mail creation / editing screen of FIG. 12B can be displayed on the information display unit 110. However, when there is only one display unit 11 as in the portable terminal 10 of the present embodiment, two screens must be displayed on one display unit. In that case, each screen can also be displayed by dividing the display screen of one display unit 210, for example, as in the mobile terminal 200 of FIG. However, when displayed in this way, each screen must be reduced and displayed, so it cannot be said that the display space of the limited display unit is effectively utilized, and depending on the function used by the mobile terminal, There may be a case where the usability as the display unit or the input unit is significantly deteriorated.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the display mode control unit 16 allows each display screen to be visually recognized even when the plurality of display screens are superimposed by transmitting the plurality of display screens without reducing each display screen. Control so that you can. Hereinafter, as in the case of superimposing a plurality of display screens, each display screen constituting the plurality of displays is conceptually described as a “layer”. For convenience of explanation, a display screen on which operation keys as shown in FIG. 12A are displayed is “operation layer”, and a display screen on which operation results are displayed as shown in FIG. This is referred to as “display layer”.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example in which the layers shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B are superimposed and displayed. If the other layer is superimposed on one layer as it is, the display screen of the lower layer overlapped will not be visible, so the display mode control unit 16 changes the transmittance of the display screen of the upper layer, The upper image is superimposed in a transparent state. FIG. 13A is a diagram in which the display layer is transparently displayed on the operation layer, and is superimposed and displayed. FIG. 13B is a diagram in which the operation layer is transparently displayed on the display layer. By superimposing and displaying the upper layer in this way, both of the two layers can be visually recognized, so there is no need to reduce the display of each layer, and the display unit does not impair the layout of each layer. Eleven display spaces can be used effectively.

  Note that the display mode control unit 16 performs control so that display in various modes can be performed according to the settings stored in the storage unit 18 in the superimposed display by transmission. For example, “image transmission on / off” in which whether or not to use the transparent and superimposed display function as described above is set in advance, or how much an arbitrary layer is displayed and “layer transmission” is set. Control is performed so that various settings such as “rate”, “layer order” for setting the order of superimposing a plurality of layers, and “maximum number of superimposed layers” for setting the maximum number of layers to be superimposed are performed. When a layer exceeding the “maximum number of superimposed layers” is activated, the first activated layer is hidden in the sleep state, and when the display of other layers is completed, the sleep state of the layer in the sleep state is terminated. You may comprise so that it may cancel | release and display again. In the case of this example, it is sufficient that the layout of the operation keys can be visually recognized. Therefore, it is preferable to set the layer transmittance and the layer order as shown in FIG. According to each function, it is possible to set the mode that is most easily used by each user.

  When overlaying layers with transparency as described above, it is especially problematic if the positions of icons, buttons, keys, etc., which are input areas displayed on each layer, do not overlap the same position on multiple layers. It is possible to accept input operations for each layer. However, when the position of the input area is displayed so as to overlap the same position of a plurality of layers, even if the user presses the position of the input area, it is input to which input area of the superimposed display, The touch panel 12 cannot judge.

  That is, for example, in FIG. 13, the key “3” or the character “Year” in the selection candidate is displayed in the input area regardless of whether the pressing operation is performed in any layer of FIG. Since the positions do not overlap in each layer, it is possible to correctly determine from which position the input is made on the touch panel 12 to which layer the input area is input. However, for example, the “#” key or the “Yield” character in the selection candidate is positioned on the touch panel 12 regardless of which layer is pressed in FIG. 13 (a) or (b). Since they are almost the same, it may be assumed that the input position cannot be determined from the pressed position.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the mobile terminal 10 performs “multi-layer operation processing” for determining as an input to a predetermined input area even if the positions of the input areas overlap when a plurality of layers are superimposed and displayed.

  Hereinafter, the multi-layer operation process by the input device of the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In this multi-layer operation process, it is assumed that a plurality of layers are superimposed on the display unit 11 as a premise. In addition, when the user performs an input on a predetermined input area on the touch panel 12, the input mode is stored in the storage unit 18 in advance so that the input mode determination unit 17 can determine which layer is the input.

  The input mode referred to here is, for example, a normal input that is pressed once, a long press input, an input that is quickly pressed twice, an input that slides a finger while pressing, an input that repels the pressed finger, Various modes are conceivable, such as an input of tracing around the icon to be selected with a circle. In particular, an input that slides a finger may be handled as an input mode that changes depending on the sliding direction (for example, sliding from top to bottom is the first input mode, from bottom to top). Slide into the second input mode, etc.). The storage unit 18 stores in advance which layer corresponds to each input mode.

  First, in step S11, when an input is detected on the touch panel 12 corresponding to the input area displayed on the display unit 11, the control unit 19 refers to the key arrangement of each layer stored in the storage unit 18. Thus, it is determined whether or not the position of the input area where the input is detected does not overlap with the plurality of input areas of the displayed plurality of layers (step S12). Even if there are a plurality of layers, if the position of the input area does not overlap, it is considered that the user intended to input to the input area. Therefore, the control unit 19 performed the input to the input area. As a result, a corresponding process is performed (step S13).

  In step S12, when the position of the input area where the input is detected overlaps with the input area of another layer, the control unit 19 uses the information on the input mode determined by the input mode determination unit 17. Then, it is determined to which layer this input has been performed, and processing is performed assuming that an input operation has been performed on the input area of the layer indicated by the determination result (step S14).

  Therefore, when the input area overlaps, for example, when “normal single press is input to the operation layer” is set, as shown in FIG. 14A, the user wants to input to the “6” key. Sometimes, if an input is made by pressing the “6” key once, based on the determination by the input mode determination unit 17, the control unit 19 processes the input as an input of “6” for the operation layer. In addition, when the input area overlaps and is set as “input to be slid while being pressed is input to the display layer”, when the user wants to select the character “You”, as shown in FIG. ”Is input, the control unit 19 processes the input as selecting“ You ”of the display layer based on the determination of the input mode determination unit 17. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the input mode determination unit includes the input mode determination unit 17 and the storage unit 18. In addition, the overlapping area input detection unit is configured by including the touch panel 12, the display mode control unit 16, and the control unit 19. The control unit 19 includes an input control unit.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the input areas of a plurality of layers at the same position on the touch panel 12 are not related to the state of the superimposed display transmitted on the display unit 11 (which layer is the topmost). Regardless of whether or not it is displayed on the screen, it is possible to directly input an arbitrary layer separately for each layer. Therefore, there is no need to select a layer to be activated or switch layers for each input.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the result based on the input to a certain layer is reflected in another layer, such as the result of the input to the “operation layer” is reflected in the “display layer”. Display can be performed. For example, when the key “2 (A, B, C)” is pressed in the operation layer, the control unit 19 first presses the key “2 (A, B, C)” in the operation layer. After a confirmation display (for example, a momentary reverse display) is displayed, a process of outputting the letter “A” to the display layer can be performed based on this input. Therefore, in this embodiment, the display control unit is configured including the display mode control unit 16 and the control unit 19.

  In addition, when an e-mail is created as shown in FIG. 14, various word selection candidates are displayed in the lower part of the display layer in accordance with the input of characters, and when the user selects a candidate from among them, In the case of the method, the user usually selects a character conversion candidate by using a cross direction key displayed at the top of the operation layer. In the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment, a plurality of layers can be displayed in a superimposed manner by being transparent, and direct input can be performed on an arbitrary layer. For this reason, when selecting a candidate as described above, the user can directly select a selection candidate from the display layer by performing input in a manner of input to the display layer. Therefore, the user can make full use of the merit of using the input unit having the touch panel.

  Furthermore, in preparation for the case where the input mode determination unit 17 cannot determine which layer corresponds to the input by the user, the priority of input can be set in advance for each layer. That is, for example, when it is determined that a normal single pressing operation is an input to the operation layer and a slide input is determined to be an input to the display layer, whether the user input is a single press or a slide input If the input mode discrimination unit 17 cannot discriminate, for example, a setting for preferentially inputting to the display layer can be performed in advance. In addition, when the mode of the input operation for the first appearing layer is set, for example, as a normal single press, the mode of the input operation for the next appearing layer is set to a mode different from the normal single press. Become. For this reason, when a certain input cannot be recognized as a normal one-time press that is assumed to be easy to distinguish, a setting is made to preferentially determine that the input is for a layer that appears later. You can also.

  Next, the operation of the input device of the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. This further explains an example of the operation of the mobile terminal 10 when a plurality of layers are activated, including the above-described “multi-layer operation processing”.

  After the start, in step S21, when a plurality of layers are started by superimposing a new display screen on the display screen that was originally started, the control unit 19 sets the image transmission function setting from the storage unit 18. Read (step S22). When reading the settings of the image transparency function, in addition to the above-mentioned “image transparency on / off”, “layer transparency”, “layer order”, “maximum number of superimposed layers”, the above-mentioned “multi-layer operation processing” is necessary. In other words, various settings made in advance, such as associating each input mode with a layer and displaying / hiding a “menu key” to be described later, are read.

  Next, it is determined whether or not “transmission on / off” in the information read in step S22 is set to use or not to use the function of transparent and superimposed display (step S23). ). In step S23, when the image transmission is turned off, that is, when it is set not to superimpose, the control unit 19 displays the screen by dividing the screen according to the setting in order to display a plurality of screens without using a plurality of layers. Thus, the display mode control unit 16 is controlled (step S24).

  If it is determined in step S23 that image transmission is set to ON, the control unit 19 controls the display mode control unit 16 so that a plurality of layers are appropriately transmitted according to the setting and displayed in a superimposed manner. 11 is set to display a menu key, it is determined whether or not the menu key is pressed (step S25). This menu key is displayed as an input area in the upper right part of the operation layer, for example, as shown in FIG. When this menu key is pressed in step S25, the control unit 19 controls the display mode control unit 16 to display a setting screen on which various settings of the “image transmission function” described above can be performed (step S25). S26). Further, if this menu key is shifted to non-display after a certain period of time and redisplayed in response to a special input such as tracing the edge of the touch panel 12, it does not interfere with other displays. Is preferred. After the setting is performed on the setting screen in step S26, the control unit 19 returns to step S22 and reads the setting from the storage unit 18.

  When the menu key is not pressed in step S25, the process proceeds to step S27 to perform the “multi-layer operation process” described in the flowchart of FIG. During a series of input operations, a user may start an application to start a further layer. However, an unnecessary layer may be deleted due to an application termination process or the like. In step S28, the control unit 19 checks the number of layers that are currently activated, and repeats the multi-layer operation process of step S27 as long as multiple layers are activated. On the other hand, when it is determined that the plurality of layers are no longer activated, the control unit 19 ends the process of controlling the input of the plurality of layers accompanying the superimposed display.

  In this way, it is possible to change the settings of the image transparency function as appropriate in a series of input processing when multiple layers are activated, including “multi-layer operation processing”. Alternatively, the screen split display can be selected, so that the user can obtain an extremely convenient operating environment.

  In addition, this invention is not limited only to the said embodiment, Many deformation | transformation or a change is possible. For example, in the above embodiment, in the “multi-layer operation process”, it is determined whether or not the position of the input area where the input is detected overlaps the plurality of input areas displayed on the plurality of layers. If so, it was determined to which layer this input was made. However, as another example, regardless of whether or not the position of the input area where the input is detected overlaps in the input areas displayed on the plurality of layers, the input mode and the layer are always set in advance. It is also possible to perform processing based on the correspondence relationship between

  That is, when an input of the first mode (for example, simple one press) is performed on the touch panel 12, it is always determined and processed as an input to the first layer, and an input of the second mode (for example, slide input) ) Is always determined and processed as an input to the second layer. Depending on the function used in the mobile terminal 10, an operation method fixed for each layer as described above may be preferable.

  Further, in the above embodiment, for convenience of explanation, the number of layers to be superimposed is two. However, naturally, three or more layers may be superimposed and displayed. In this case, the transmittance of each of the three or more layers is changed so as to be stepwise different as a whole, and each layer is displayed so that it can be visually recognized even if a plurality of layers are superimposed, It is preferable to associate different input modes with each layer.

  According to the present invention, a plurality of layers including the first and second layers are superimposed and displayed on the display unit, whereby the display area in each layer can be utilized to the maximum, and the first and second layers can be used. Since the input to the layer can be distinguished, the functions of the display unit and the input unit of the input device can be utilized to the maximum, and the convenience for the user can be significantly improved.

Claims (3)

A display unit that displays a screen composed of a plurality of layers, including a first layer that displays at least one input area, and a second layer that displays at least one input area different from the first layer. When,
A touch panel that is arranged in association with the display unit and detects an input to an input area displayed on the display unit;
An input mode determination unit for determining an input mode for the touch panel;
An overlapping area input detection unit for detecting an input to an overlapping area where the input area displayed by the first layer and the input area displayed by the second layer overlap;
When the input to the overlapping area where the input area displayed by the first layer and the input area displayed by the second layer overlap is detected by the overlapping area input detection unit, the input mode determination unit When the input is determined to be an input according to the first input mode, the input is processed as an input to the input area displayed on the first layer, and the input mode is determined by the input mode determination unit. An input control unit that processes the input as an input to an input area displayed on the second layer when it is determined as an input according to an aspect;
An input device comprising: A display unit that displays a screen composed of a plurality of layers, including a first layer that displays at least one input area, and a second layer that displays at least one input area different from the first layer. When,
A touch panel that is arranged in association with the display unit and detects an input to an input area displayed on the display unit;
An input mode determination unit for determining a first input mode for the first layer and a second input mode for the second layer to the touch panel;
When the input mode determining unit determines that the input is an input according to the first input mode, the input mode is processed as an input to the input area displayed on the first layer, and the input mode determining unit When the input is determined to be an input according to the second input mode, an input control unit that processes the input as an input to an input area displayed on the second layer;
An input device comprising: The display control unit further includes a display control unit that performs display on the other predetermined display area of the first or second layer in response to an input to the input area displayed on one of the first or second layers. The input device according to claim 1 or 2.

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